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Covering 69 square miles in central New Hampshire, scenic Lake Winnipesaukee has been a popular tourist destination for more than a century. Surrounded by rugged mountains and encompassing 288 miles of shoreline in eight different towns, Lake Winnipesaukee is the premier attraction of New Hampshire's Lakes Region. Translating as either "smile of the Great Spirit" or "beautiful water in a high place,"Winnipesaukee was first explored by a namesake branch of the Pennacook Indian tribe. Variously known as Winnipisseoke, Winnipiseogee Pond, the lake was officially designated Winnipesaukee by the New Hampshire state legislature in 1933.
Geological evidence indicates that Lake Winnipesaukee was carved out by glaciers during the last Ice Age, some 50,000 years ago. Draining the central portion of New Hampshire, it once flowed southeast, leaving via what is now Alton Bay toward the Atlantic Ocean. When glacial debris blocked this path, flow was redirected westward through Paugus Bay into the Winnipesaukee River. The latter flows west from the lake and joins the Pemigewasset River in Franklin to form the Merrimack River, which flows south to Massachusetts and into the Atlantic.
Settlement of the Lake Winnipesaukee region began about 40,000 years ago, when the Winnipesaukee Indians of the Abnaki Tribes Confederacy arrived on its shores and established several fishing communities. At the height of central New Hampshire's Algonquian period, the village of Aquedoctan was the largest settlement in the Northeast. Fishing was the central economic activity in Aquedoctan, facilitated by maple-wood baskets, called "weirs,"that the Winnipesaukee tribesmen developed to capture the abundant shad during their late-summer migration. The contemporary village of Weirs Beach in Laconia takes its name from the Indian fishing device. Traded goods included pottery, fashioned from the clay mined at the foothills of Brickyard Mountain, cornmeal ground at a large hollowed-out rock on Weirs Beach, wooden canoes and maple sugar.
The Winnipesaukee Indians were largely forced off the land by white settlers by 1700. Over the next century, several European settlements were established: Laconia in 1761, Moultonborough in 1763, New Salem (now Meredith) and Wolfeboro in 1768, Alton in the middle 1770's, Gilford in 1777, and Tuftonburo in 1795. The first intercollegiate sporting event in the United States occurred at Center Harbor on August 3, 1852, when Harvard defeated Yale by two boat lengths in the first Harvard-Yale Regatta.
The paddlesteamer Mount Washington, named after the highest of New Hampshire's White Mountains, was launched in spring 1871 to carry mail, goods, and passengers on Lake Winnipesaukee, under the flag of the Boston and Maine Railroad. With a hull length of 178 feet and a beam of 49 feet she appeared as a typical representative of the North American sidewheelers around the second half of the century and was the largest steamer on the lake at that time. Known as "The Mount", her kitchen and restaurant service soon became famous.
On December 23, 1939, a nearby railroad station caught fire from an overheated stove. The fire soon spread to the ship, tied at the dock, and destroyed it. Efforts to cut the Mount loose were to no avail as it was a time of extremely low water and the hull was stuck fast in the mud of the lake bottom. Soon after, a local company was formed to build a new ship. Since Europe was already at war, obtaining steel was impossible. Instead, they purchased an old sidewheel vessel on Lake Champlain: the Chateaugay, a 203-foot, iron-hulled sidewheeler that was being used as a club house for the Burlington yacht club. It was cut into sections and transported to Lake Winnipesaukee on rail cars. A new twin-screw vessel was designed for the hull being welded back together at Lakeport. Powered by two steam engines taken from another ocean-going yacht, the new MS Mount Washington made her maiden voyage on August 15, 1940.
By the late 19th century, Lake Winnipesaukee had emerged as a popular summer resort, with residents traveling from Boston and New York City to escape the summer heat. Weirs Beach, the largest public beach on Winnipesaukee and the terminus of the cruise ship Mount Washington, remains a popular destination, with several vendors, arcades and carnival attractions setting up shop along the boulevard each summer. Constructed in 1925, the historic pier at Weirs Beach was a hot spot for local swing bands in the interwar years of the early 20th century.
Today, the Lake Winnipesaukee region offers boundless opportunity for recreation, sightseeing, entertainment and leisure. Lake Winnipesaukee is nationally known for its annual Ice-Out Contest, in which people try to guess the earliest date that the Mount Washington can safely leave her port in Center Harbor and motor to four other ports (Weirs Beach, Alton Bay, Wolfeboro, and Meredith). Since records began in 1851, ice-out has happened as early as March 29 and as late as May 12, although 90 percent of the time it is declared in April.
Summer brings plentiful options for swimming at Lake Winnipesaukee's nine public beaches, while other popular water sports include boating, waterskiing, canoeing, and fishing. Numerous hiking trails wind through the surrounding Ossipee and Belknap mountain ranges, and New Hampshire's majestic White Mountains are just a half hour's drive north. Residents and vacationers alike enjoy excellent skiing at Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, majestic vistas at Moultonborough's Castle in the Clouds, numerous shops and restaurants in Laconia, Meredith and Wolfeboro, and nearly a dozen golf courses throughout the region.